My Body is a Cage and Other Stories

It’s a robin’s egg blue for some reason. When Astrid slips inside, the wheel is warm
beneath her hands. Ezra folds himself into the passenger’sseat and contents himself with finding
viable radio stations.
She glances over at him every once in a while. Heinterviews her for the better part of an
hour, on what it was like growing up with a ufologistfor a mother. Normal, she says. I didn’t
know anything else, growing up. Did she pack yourlunches like other moms? I was in the free
lunch program so I ate at school. Were you strappedfor money? I think so but she tried to keep it
from me. Does your mother have a history of mentalillness? I’m not answering that. After that
he spends most of the time he’s staring out the window,wide-eyed, excitement palpable in the
way his knee keeps bouncing. Once, she catches himon his phone, looking up hotels in Las
Cruces.
“We’re not staying in a hotel,” she says.
“Then where?”
“The Chihuahuan desert. I was going to buy tents andsupplies when we got into town.”
“Won’t it be hot?”
“Yep.”
They debate over whether the Jeep’s color is an assetor a hindrance. Ezra is of the
opinion that it is a lovely color, very eye-catchingshould Donna see it on the horizon and make
her way towards humanity again. It’ll blend in withthe sky, Astrid says. She doesn’t say that
They, capital T, will be better able to see them atnight, which she isn’t sure is a good or bad
thing.
It turns out they’ve come to New Mexico in the heightof camping season. There is only
one tent left, a 5-7 foot dome that will protect themfrom the blistering sun, scorpions, and coral